How easily do you want blood cells to glide through your veins? Do you want your sinuses to process pollen easily? Do you want to cushion your spine and brain? How easily do you want nutrient particles and waste to move into and out of your intestinal walls? Imagine how difficult it is for your guts to move chips along a dry or mucous-filled canal? Oy! Moisture is needed, and it’s easiest if every day you drink the appropriate amount of healthy, clean water.

How much water to drink? Half your body weight in ounces is an easy way to measure. If you weigh 180; that’s 90 ounces. I drink a glass on the way to the bathroom in the morning. Then, I fill a liter bottle and put it next to my desk. By noon, I know I’ve drunk half of my day’s water. I refill the bottle, and by evening, I’m drunk enough.

How do you know if you’re drinking enough? Try the pinch test–pinch the flesh on the top of your forearm. The skin should easily pinch and return to normal. Three ten-ounce glasses with your meals and a morning coffee just doesn’t cut it, unless you weigh 80 pounds. How long do you spend in the bathroom for your morning bowel movement? A couple minutes at most should do it. Easy evacuation depends on adequate hydration.

I often don’t drink with meals (sometimes drinking with meal helps, sometimes it doesn’t–more in a future post). Your hydration needs depend on your diet. How much pasta, bread, chips and dry foods to you eat? Think about sliding that through a dry gullet.

Be good to your guts and your fluid-filled body by drinking water. Spring water? City water? That’s another article. The best to you today!

It’s grapefruit season NOW and it’s February. When I was a kid growing up in the midwest, Mom would try to get us to eat grapefruit any time of the year since they are available year ’round in the grocery. They tasted awful though, and we’d pile on white sugar in order to eat them. I had no idea that grapefruit tastes fantastic when it’s in season. What a revelation!

The hint of spring has me wanting to dress for warmer weather, but it’s not spring yet by date nor temperature. I’m trying to soak up as much sun as the weather will allow, and keeping active although I want spring now. There’s no rushing it, and I want to save myself from the colds folks get at the change of seasons. It will be warm soon enough, and then I can dress for it. Meanwhile, keep warm, and check out my next breathing workshop–March 15, 10-noon in Fountain Square.

About those grapefruit–pink from Texas is my fav. I slice them end to end, then into crescents, leaving the middle pith and seeds on the cutting board. Who needs a special spoon?

I loved Cindy Bradley’s Feb. 8 Going Vegan in the Herald Times. She and her husband experimented with a plant-based diet to cope with his digestion problems. The two-week experiment yielded a drastic improvement in symptoms of Cindy’s arthritis. She was able to make a fist for the first time in years and swelling in her right ankle disappeared. Not bad for a two-week experiment, considering the diet was neither difficult nor expensive.

So what happens at night? That’s when our bodies get a chance to do some housekeeping. We aren’t putting food in. We aren’t balancing on those small feet. We aren’t attending to every sight, sound, and thought that arises. So the body gets to tend to the effects of what we’ve done during the day, it gets to clean up.

My usual schedule is an early evening meal (6:00 pm) and breakfast about 14 hours later (8:00 am). I love breakfast and eat according to my appetite and energy needs. You might say that my digestive system fasts between the evening meal and the first food in the morning. The earlier you eat in the evening, the longer the fast until break-fast.Continue reading »

The wealth of real food available from our local farmers and gardens is our dazzling abundance this harvest season.

It’s easy to forget how good things are when fear is so addictive and compelling. Politics is hot around the world and here. More and more power is possible for us all if we’re willing to step up. That includes accepting the privilege and responsibility for our health. So what do we choose?

Can we handle the glitches that show up in our world without making our world about them? With what do we nourish our bodies, minds, and hearts?

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I have been coming to Cynthia for massage therapy for several years and during that time my health has improved in all kinds of ways: I have less pain, more flexibility, better circulation, more energy, and even an improved immune system. Cynthia has amazing massage skills, but also lots of great advice and tips about general well-being and health. Her ideas are easy and practical and fun!
Jason Fickel, jasonfickel.com, 2012.Click here for more testimonials.